My search for a similar topic did not yield any useful information so if this is asked before my apologies for your time.

I am thinking of switching to a Mac Platform (MacBook Pro) and tether a Imacon Ixpress 528C back to it (through the imagebank). Does the powered Firewire offer enough power for the back? I have heard that this was the case with the old MacBooks but things may be different now?

As I understand it, you have to be careful with the amount of voltage available. MBP's do provide power through their FW ports, but it's questionable whether they actually provide enough power to operate the backs without loss in quality.

Although I typically run my P65+ on it's own battery, I recently tried tethered powering from my 17" 2009 MBP. With the laptop plugged in to its power supply the files seemed ok, with it running on battery power I was getting corrupted files (like hardly an image at all). I've seen the same image loss result when outside in the cold and my P45+ battery lost strength. You have to be careful because it's not always a matter of just on or off.

I do recall hearing that Apple reduced the power output of its portables fw ports in the last few years, probably to get better battery life.

We rent several different MacBooks and have not had any major problems with any of the back systems. Recommendations would be use AC power when available, change batteries when you get down to about 1/3, have additional batteries or external battery available, use 15' or shorter FW cable, max out RAM and upgrade Video Card where you would have 512MB. We will often take out MacBooks on initial camera back demonstrations so we don't have to worry about the clients system or installing software and leave files with the clients, have not had any problems.

I am thinking of switching to a Mac Platform (MacBook Pro) and tether a Imacon Ixpress 528C back to it (through the imagebank). Does the powered Firewire offer enough power for the back? I have heard that this was the case with the old MacBooks but things may be different now?

I don't recall the 528c causing power issues on Mac laptops, but I may be forgetting something. Worst case, you can put a charged battery on the Imagebank while it's tethered and that should prevent any power issue from cropping up.

I have the 528c and have shot with it tethered to a mac book pro (17inch intel duo) using the firewire 400-800 adapter. No problems so far, but I haven't worked with it extensively. Also I can not recall what the affect on battery life is, but these have very good battery life anyhow compared to previous models.